I Started a Joke (Then Some Idiot Stole It)

I don’t usually do this, but today I’m going to go on a bit of a rant, so prepare yourselves, people. The fussy lady’s just had a bit of string cheese and a Hansen’s all natural soda and now she’s totally steamed up. ROAR! (Wait a sec—just need to adjust my orthopedic chair and get my lap blankie and…there, all better.) Let’s do this.

The Topic: Plagiarism

The Offenders: Dumbasses on Twitter

Specifically, the dumbasses who tweet a comedian’s joke without giving credit. Oh, yes. Them. They just incense me. Incense with a capital Incense.

Now, we all know that there’s a lot of misinformation on the internet. And we all know it’s not always possible to find out where a quote is from or attribute it to the proper author. But that’s not what I’m talking about today. I’m talking about the people who habitually pass off others’ jokes as their own, like the woman who kept tweeting uncredited lines by Ellen DeGeneres, Ron White and Steven Wright last year. (Lines you could easily find with a .5 second Google search.) And what’d all that word stealing get her? A ton of followers and a major city newspaper calling her “the funniest mom on Twitter.”

(See: Wendi, incensed.)

More recently, some guy—who I shall not name because I don’t want the drama and I also don’t want to promote him—tweeted jokes by both Henny Youngman and Milton Berle. (Yes, sadly, I recognized both of those jokes because I’m 90 years old and live in an iron lung.) He sent them from his own Twitter account without crediting the comedians, then when called out, basically said that he wasn’t stealing the jokes because he never specifically said he wrote them.

That’s sort of like me doing this:

@WendiAarons Be the change you want to see in the world.

When I really should be doing this:

@WendiAarons “Be the change you want to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Of course, I’m sure nobody would ever be fooled into thinking I wrote that in the first place since I’m about as spiritual as a cereal box, but still. If you’re seriously not trying to steal the line, why not take the extra two seconds to type in the real writer’s name? Is it that hard? Also—and I know this happens—if you inadvertently rip-off someone’s line and you get called on it? Man up and say so. It’s an honest mistake that we’ve all made.

I’ve never been a comedian, and, as far as I know, nobody’s ever purloined one of my tweets. (Which comes as no surprise since I usually tweet about Manilow or cats or Manilow holding a cat.) So I’m not quite sure why this stealing bothers me so much. Is it because I have a ton of respect for humor and joke writers? Or because I hate to see people advance unfairly? Or because I place such a high, high importance on originality? Probably all of those things.

@HotComesToDie: When I think how HARD it is to write a joke, makes me INSANE some of you blithely rip them off.

So the next time you see someone like @fancymommytoes or @TexasBabyGurl tweet something like: “Krispy Kreme Donuts are so good, if I told you it had crack in it, you would be like, I knew it was something in there,” take a pause and wonder why that person suddenly sounds like Chris Rock. Then tell them that people who steal other people’s words and thoughts and humor are nothing but unoriginal losers.

Comments

(It was one of my followers who called twitter thieves Twiefs but don’t know if it’s original to her)

You were witness to the twitter battle I waged against dadarocks, the offending thief. I have to call them out because it’s my business he’s messing with. And I don’t like people who advance unfairly either.

And dadarocks, who I’m convinced is the same guy as dadstreet, is such a coward he would respond, “Nuhn uh.”

Dadstreet was DMing me the entire time saying lame things like “I’m sure dadarocks meant no harm.” Then another guy DM’d me and told me Dadarocks is reviled by many moms. Then I c+p’d those lines right into Twitter, baby!!

Wait, I’ve been telling everyone to be the change they want to be in the world, just like my writing friend Wendi always says??

This was a hot button issue indeed. It’s maddening that the internet is so rife with stolen material. I would be irate if someone ever ripped my stuff and I’m certainly no aspirational figure. That said, I actually think for the humor writer, the idea of someone stealing a post over a joke would be the hardest pill to swallow. As you probably feel, it takes hours to craft a story that is laden with comedy and good jokes.

I think Bill Mahr stole one of my this week, but I’m gonna let him have it. And his millions.

Your tweets are so funny, I want to be your BFF so we can laugh all the time. That’s why I love RT-ing, because it gives the original writer all the credit. Also, I post funny items on our QuirkOut facebook page, always giving the author credit.

It’s a great way to win-win for the original author and to give your fans a good laugh. Hopefully they’ll go and LIKE the author, too.